Other Worlds
by Faeline
Summary: A trip to the Old Country evokes memories.


*Authors Note:* The Lyrics interwoven through this tale are from Loreena McKennit's album: The Visit. The song is entitled The Old Ways. Disclaimer: This is a work of amateur fiction. No profit is being made from this piece. All characters belong to their respective creators, unless otherwise indicated.  
  
Other Worlds  
By Faeline  
  
The thundering sea is calling me home, home to you  
  
The pounding sea is calling me home, home to you  
  
  
Doolin, County Clare, Ireland  
  
  
The sharp scent of sea salt grasped the evening wind and snuck through the small cracks in the doorframe and through the miniscule openings in the window molding. The fierce gale assaulted the thatched roof of the cottage and howled through the awnings.   
  
Below the cries of the wind, Sarah could here the soft murmurings of her mother and Jeremy in the modest kitchen at the side of the house, washing the glasses and dishes used in that evening's new years celebration.   
She lay her book down in her lap and stared into the grate. The red gold flames leapt up and along the brick. The burning peat logs birthed a sweet green smell that wrapped around the quaint living area, giving the illusion of endless summer.  
  
She'd thought that spending the holidays in Ireland with her mother and Jeremy would be a good idea. An escape from the irritable disposition of her stepmother and the cancer that seemed to be her life. Benign, it appeared, on the outside, yet inside it was slowly devouring her. She'd needed to get out of the monotonous routine that had enveloped her day to day actions.  
  
But coming here had been a mistake. It reminded her too much of that *other* place. Of him.   
It was as though this place, like the other, had been untouched by human hands. The people here clung to their legends, drinking them up from the landscapes saturated in myth. The scents of other worlds and their hidden mysteries clung still to the salt swept air here, unlike the modern centers of urban living she was used to. The very roots of magic and belief seemed to harbor deep in the hear of this land, and she felt as though she might at any moment turn and find herself once again gazing out on that majestic   
labyrinth.   
  
"Sarah."   
  
She shook herself out of her reverie to see her mother leaning over her chair, the silhouette of Jeremy's figure growing smaller behind her as he moved up the stairwell.  
  
"We're going to bed now, darling. Goodnight, happy New Year," she said, planting a light kiss on the top   
of her daughter's head.  
  
"Yeah, goodnight…mom"  
  
* * *  
  
She sat staring into the grate until the last of the peat logs darkened and crumbled to a smoldering heap. She rose from her chair, stretched and wrapped the blanket that had covered her lap, around her like a shawl. The wind made low mournful noises in its throat, crying at the window, begging to be let inside.   
Amidst the torrential waves of air, a melody played, soft as any lullaby, sweet as new spring grass.  
  
Sarah started and moved toward the window seeing nothing but the blackness of the night pressed against the glass. The crescent moon, shrouded in clouds, gave only a little illumination to the land, the sloping hill that led from the cabin into a small thicket of trees, and the whiteness of the well worn path that spiraled through the grove down to the sea. The melody was still there, just below the surface, untouchable yet touching her, a voice singing softly in her head, beckoning.  
  
On a dark New Year's night  
On the West Coast of Clare  
I heard your voice singing  
Your eyes danced the song  
Your hands played the tune  
Twas a vision before me   
  
  
The hard packed earth was cold, she didn't feel it. Her feet barely seemed to touch the ground. Skeletal frames of trees rattled and shook their bony arms at her as she passed. Unearthly howls rose on the wind sending icy fingers running up and down her spine. The voice was still there, just ahead of her, if she reached out…she could touch it. Her fingertips met with cold vacant air as the trees looked on and hissed to one another of this stranger walking their path. Still she danced, following that melody where ever it   
might lead her.  
  
We left the music behind and the dance carried on  
As we stole away to the seashore  
We smelt the brine, felt the wind in our hair  
And with sadness you paused   
  
  
She could see the white sand stretching out before her, the black waves that swept the shore clean.   
He was there, perched upon a grey stone, eyes gazing out over the sea, focused on the black nothingness that lay beyond. He turned, catching her gaze, continued singing drawing her near in an embrace of sound until the last words fell from his lips and were stolen away by the wind.   
  
"How did…" she began, voice soft nearly lost among the wails of the night.  
  
"I heard your call, you were thinking of me…" he said. His changeling eyes drifted to look out over the ocean once more.  
  
"The veil is thin here…easier to cross. I came when you called."  
  
"I want to go back."  
  
"No Sarah," he said, rising. "Our time is done, you must move on."  
  
"But-I want to go with you…" Jareth sighed, a sorrowful sound, lost almost entirely to the cries of the wind, and turned back to the sea.  
  
"No, for reasons you may not understand…I cannot take you back," He glanced back at her, eyes peering into her own, trapping her gaze by some unseen power.   
  
Suddenly I knew that you'd have to go  
Your world was not mine, your eyes told me so  
Yet it was there I felt the crossroads of time  
And I wondered why…  
  
As we cast our gaze on the tumbling sea  
A vision came o'er me  
Of thundering hooves and beating wings  
In clouds above  
  
Sarah moved to stand next to him, each gazing out onto the black swell of the ocean, wordless. The wind rose to a pitiable cry and above them the clouds shifted and moved. Phantom travelers making their way across a star filled abyss. The faint sound of galloping horses, which may only have been a trick of the wind, sounded in the distance and the unearthly howl that may have been nothing more than a stray dog crying out for its lost home, swelled in the dark. Voices rose and swirled on the night air, cries fell and   
shattered against the rocky terrain.   
  
Jareth turned, shadow cloak swirling about him, moving away from her. She made as if to follow but stopped as he turned round on her once again. The wind caught his cloak and hair, sending them streaming out behind him, a picture with all the beauty and majesty that could be found in this world.   
  
"You said it yourself, I have no power over you. You meant those words, now live them. Do not spend your life thinking on what might have been, live on what it can still be. You belong here and our time at last is finished, as it should have been when you spoke those final words…"  
  
As you turned to go I heard you call my name  
You were like a bird in a cage, spreading its wings to fly  
'The Old Ways' are lost you sang as you flew  
And I wondered why…  
  
As she watched, his figure changed form, rapidly depleting before her eyes into the frame of a magnificent owl. The sound of his wings echoed in her ears as he rose from the white sand to fly upwards into the wind and soar with the phantoms passing quickly overhead.   
The waves broke against the shore, sending the melodies in her mind crashing down around her. She sunk onto the rock upon which he had sat, drew her knees up against her and laid her head down. Her eyes searched the troubled horizon of the endless sea finding nothing but darkness.   
This was her world it was true, but beyond the boundaries another world lay waiting and its call was still harbored deep within her soul…  
  
The thundering waves are calling me home, home to you.  
The pounding sea is calling me home, home to you…  
  
© Faeline (L. M. L.), 2000. 


End file.
